PR Tactics Now! Public Relations is a Two-Way Conversation By Michelle M. Griffith

Have you ever been on a date, where the other person talked about themselves the whole time? Did you have a second date?
Public relations is a two-way conversation.  Every time you interact with a person, you’re committing public relations. Ever been on a date or met someone and the conversation just flowed and you had great exchanges and decide to meet again? You were building a relationship! That’s pr one-on-one.

Effective public relations requires a well thought out plan. The tactics chosen for your plan are selected based on the overall objective and goal of your company.

Critical components of a PR plan:

1.    Identify your key publics and what need you can solve for them better than anyone else.
2.     Know where to engage them. What forms of communication and/or media will reach them?  Is it trade publications, bloggers, geographical, print media, news talk radio, associations?
3.    What are three key messages that will quickly resonate with you target audience?

Your target audience is being bombarded with messages. You need to quickly and effectively communicate with your key publics why they need you.

In a two-way conversation your words should resonate with solving or satisfying the receiver’s needs.

All businesses, regardless of the profession or industry all have the same two goals in common:

1.    More leads or sales
2.    Grow revenue

For example when people ask me what I do: 

We provide the single most cost effective way to grow your business.

We help clients expand market share and grow revenues.

By the way, those are examples of sound bites.  A statement of 20 words or less that can clearly communicate your brand to your key publics.

You can take that same one-on-one interaction and apply it to much larger audiences. 

Satisfied customers are excellent source for a third party endorsement. When you recommend a restaurant to a friend, that’s a third party endorsement. Because your friend trusts you, he/she is now much more likely to try the restaurant. 

Another form of the third party endorsement is the positive write up.  When a reporter writes positive things about you, the reader automatically perceives it as true.  We call this earned media. In other words we have positioned you or your product as news worthy. We have earned ink versus buying an ad. Plus because the reporter has chosen to write about you, you get the benefit of the third party endorsement.

What is unique about your product or service? What problem or need can you sole or satisfy better than your competitors?

Effective Public Relations allows you to build relationships exponentially. And thanks to the internet and social media you no longer have to wait for traditional media to bless you as newsworthy.

Social media is simply public relations going viral. You can easily find people interested in you, your products and services online. You can engage them directly. You can also take advantage of free online press release distribution services.  One word of caution here: Please ask for my contact information and my free download on how to write a press release that might actually get read. A bad press release is just that, bad press!

Building relationships takes an investment of time, energy and money. 
Face Book didn’t happen overnight. It started with one person and gradually he built enough relationships one at a time, until it grew exponentially.

While humankind has come a long way from the cave or the garden of eden, some things have not and will not change.

People prefer to interact and do business with people and companies they like trust. 

So be honest, be sincere, be yourself.

Thank you for reading the It's Your Biz Small Business Blog.